Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-09-21

in the month of May or June or September,
or December, 1887, we made the blissful
mistake of supposing that we were enter.
tanning weak men like ourselves, when, lol
they showed their pinions before they left,
and we found out that they were angels un-
awares.
Another reward comes in the good wishes
and prayers of our guests. do not think
ones house ever gets over having had q good
man or woman abide there. George White
field used to scratch on the window of the
room where he was entertained passage OF
Scripture, and in one case, after he left, the
whole household was converted by the
reading Of that passage on the window
pane. The woman Of Shunem furnished a
little room over the wall for Elisha, and all
the ages have heard the glorious conse-
quences. On cold, stormy winter night
my father entertained Trueman Osborne,
the evangelist, and through all eternity l
will thank God that Trueman Osborne
stopped at our house. How many of our
guests have brought to US coincidence, and
sympathy, and help! There is a legend
told of st. Sebald that in his Christian
rounds he used to stop for entertainment at
the house of a poor cartwright. Coming
there one day, he found the cartwright and
his family freezing for the lack of any fuel.
st. Sebald ordered the men to go out and
break the icicles from the side of the house
and bring them in, and the icicles were
brought into the house and thrown on the
hearth, and they began to blaze Immediate
ly, and the freezing family gathered around
and were warmed by them. That was a
legend; but how often have our guests come
in to gather up the cold, freezing SORROWS of
our life, kindling them into illumination,
and warmth, and good cheer. He who
opens his house to Christian hospitality,
turns those who are strangers into friends.
Years will goby, and there will be great
changes in you. and there will be great
changes in them. Some day you will be
sitting in loneliness, watching bereave-
ment, and you will get letter in strange
handwriting, and you will look at the post
anybody living in that city;'' and you will
the story of thanks for your Christian gen.
erosity long years. before, and how they
have heard afar off of your trouble. And
the letter will be so full of kindly reminis-
cences and Christian coincidence it will be a
plaster large enough to cover up all the deep
gashes of your soul When we take people
into our houses as Christian guests, we take
them into our sympathies forever. In bort,
Holland, soldier with sword at his side
stopped at a house, desiring lodging and
shelter. The woman of the house at first
refused admittance, saying that the men Of
the house were not at home; but when he
showed his credentials that he had been
honorably discharged from the army, he
was admitted and tarried during the night.
In the nighttime there was knocking at
the front door, and two rufians broke into
despoil that household. No sooner had
they come over the door-sip than the armed
guest, who had primed his piece and charg-
ed it with slugs, met them, and telling the
woman to stand back, am happy to say,
dropped the two assaulting desperadoes
dead at his feet. Well, now there are no
bandits prowling around to destroy our
houses; but how often it is that we find
those that have been our guests become our
defenders. We gave them shelter first, and
then afterwards in the great conflicts of life
they fought for our reputation; they fought
for our property, they fought for your soul.
Another reward that comes from Chris
tian hospitality is in the assurance that we
shall have hospitality shown to US and to
ours. In the upturnings of this life who
knows in what city or what land we may
be thrown, and how much we may need an
open door? There may come no such crisis
to us, but our children may be thrown into
some snch strait. He who is in Christian
manner hospitable has free pass through
all Christendom. 1t may be that you will
have been dead fifty years before any such
stress shall come upon one of your descen-
dants; but do you nOtsuppose that God can
remember fifty years? and the knuckle of
the grandchild will be heard against the
door of some stranger, and that door will
open; and it will be talked over in heaven,
and it will be said: "That mans grand
father fifty years ago, gave shelter to
stranger, and now strangers door is open
for grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining and
being entertained, they take piece of lead
and cut in two, and the host takes one half
of the piece of lead and the guest takes the
other half as they part. These two pieces
of lead are handed down from generation to
and from family to family; and
after awhile perhaps one of the families in
want or i'll trouble 90 out with this one
piece of lead and find the other family with
thacorresponding piece oflead, and no SOON
er is the tally completed than the old hospi-
tality is aroused and eternal friendship
pledged. So the memory of Christian hos
pitality will 60 down from generation to
generation, and from family to family, and
the tally will never be lost, neither in this
world nor the world to come.
Mark this: the day will come when we
will all be turned out of doors, without any
xception-barefoot barehead, no water in
the canteen, no bread in the haversack, and
we will go IN that way into the future world.
And wonder if eternal hospitalities will
open before us, and if we will be received
into everlasting habitations? Francis
Frescobald was rich Italian, and he was
very merciful and very hospitable. One
day, an Englishman by the name of Thomas
Cromwell appeared at his door asking for
shelter and aims, which were cheerfnlly
rendered. Frescobald afterwards lost all
his property, become very poor, and wan
dered up ia England; and one day he saw
procession passing, and 10! it was the Lord
Chancellor of England; and 10 the Lord
Chancellor of England was Thomas CIom-
well, the very man whom he had once be-
down in Italy. The Lord Chancel-
lor, at the first glance ofFrescobald, re-
cognized him, and dismounted from his car
risge, threw his arms around him and en-
braced him, paid his debts, invited him to
his house, and said "Here are ten pieces
of money to pay for the bread you gave me,
and here are ten pieces Of money to provide
for the horse you loaned me, and here are
four bags, in each of which are four hun
dred ducats. Take them and be we'll So it
will be at last with US. If entertain
Christ in the person of His disciples in this
world when we pass up into the next coun-
try we will meet Christ in regal procession,
and He will pour all the wealth of Heaven
into our lap, and open before US everlast-
ing hospitalities. And o how tame are the
richest entertainments we can give on earth
&C impaired with the regal munificence which
Christ will display before our souls in Heav-
en-! I was reading the account which
Thomas Fuller gives of the entertainment
provided by George Neville. Among other
things, for that banquet they had three
hundred quarters of wheat, one hundred
and four tons of wine, eighty oxen, three
Thousand capons, two hundred cranes; two
hundred kids, four thousand pigeons, four
thousand rabbits, two hundred and four
bitterns, two hundred pheasants, five hun
dred partridges, four hundred plover, one
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